Category: Richmond, VA

  • RVA Show n Grow

    22 hard-chargers sallied forth to take a stiff shot of Dogpile with a #growSchool chaser.  Humidity met stupidity as we undertook this THANG:

    Front leaning rest for muster, instruction and inspection.  All hands were accounted for, so we shoved off and were underway/making way.

    Mosey, Karioca run, side shuffle over to the 240′ Carillon Tower where we took station on the brick courtyard for CoP.

    30 x ssh

    10 x windmill

    15 x IST

    15 x toy soldiers

    1 min invisible jump rope

    John “IHOP” Powers IHOP’s x2 rounds

    All hands muster on the Great Lawn for “The Michigan”

    Re-convene on the bricks for a little stretchy-stretch

    Partner up for partner wheelbarrows up the grand staircase x2 for each pax

    Adjourn to the pull-up forest

    20 x squats

    “50 in 5”  (crowd pleaser)

    Slowsey to a steep hill for Quatro minutes of Quadraphilia

    Mosey back to launch for people’s choice Mary which included (at a minimum)… low flutter, Alabama Prom Queen, Low Dolly, etc etc

    And oh by the way, we also did 300 good-form ‘mericans.  (crowd pleaser)

    Ye Olde Moleskin:

    1.  RVA pax are fierce and ruthless.  When YHC called for a little stretchy-stretch they told me to take that weak-a$$ action back to Isotope and I think they might have even called me a sister wife. Strong.  YHC likes that spirit.  Someone even “coo’d” when I called for pigeon… never fails, there’s always a coo’er in the pax.
    2. Circle K got a “94” on something and tried to tell us it was not a big deal.  Listen here Circle K, if YHC ever got a 94 on something I’d be walking around like Nature Boy Ric Flair.  Own it!  BZ as we say in the Navy.
    3. It sounds like Honey Do is actually Honey Did when it comes to shedding some extra lbs.  Good job sir… now go pick up some milk on your way home.
    4. Was that Wilson threatening violence agains YHC’s timepiece?  Remember to aim your violence at the watch sir… I’m just the messenger.  #pavlov
    5. Yankee Aggressor strong war daddy.  Aye.
    6. Congrats to Fudd for his new gig.  Don’t embarras us.
    7. Apparently bad Toga is back to the delight of the pax.  Apparently good Toga was insufferable.

    Growschool moleskin:

    1.  Awesome – and wide-ranging – discussion.  Notes:  Do you have your EH elevator speech ready? M’s can have a positive EH effect.  Church groups are good places to reach men.  Explain F3’s larger purpose.  Addition by division.  Man-to-man is best EH.  When to add or kill a workout/AO.  Develop a leadership structure that’s appropriate but doesn’t become burdensome. Etc etc.   Great discussion all the way around.  Lots of energy about an RVA homegrown csaup event and a possible rookie day in the near-future.  BZ.

     

    1. Summary:  YHC has driven 95 through RVA hundreds of times but never had the guts to stop.  Toga took me on a tour.  My assessment?  Rockin’ cool city and rock-solid pax!  So this weekend I was able to:  get some hours in the swagger wagon listening to 80’s rock, classic country, and the Click and Clack Brothers… enjoy a tasty beverage at an RVA hip brewery…. dispense a noteworthy beatdown to a bunch of hard-chargers… obtain a sweet RVA F3 jersey…and finally spend time discussing F3 with men determined to be High Impact Men and to help others be the same.  That’s a weekend I can hang my hat on.  Aye.

    Thanks for having me up.  RVA rocks!

    Goat sends.

     

  • Copy Cat

    4 strong mosey into the gloom on a dark Wednesday morning.

    COP
    20 x SSH
    15 x Abe Vigoda
    20 x LBC
    20 x Crab Cakes
    15 x Imperial Walkers
    15 x Hillbillies w/ Jville hops

    mosey to the bleachers in center of the track

    Wendy
    200M 30 x Box Jumps
    200M 30 x Muscle Ups
    200M 30 x Dips
    200M 15 x Burpees
    200M 30 x Derkins
    200M 30 x Merkins
    200M 30 x Box Jumps
    200M 30 x Monkey Humpers

    mosey to path in front of tennis courts

    10 Minutes of Mary – Dealers Choice
    LBC, flutter kicks, scissor kicks, cross leg lifts x2, dollies, ww2, Alabama prom dates, box cutters

    COT

    Moleskin

    YHC was still hurting from the beatdown Toga brought to NoToll, so why not rinse and repeat? Well not exactly the same but very close.

    Gumbo was back fresh off of a multi-week vacation posted in his typically strong fashion. He and DK effortlessly dominated the run. DK on the other hand had posted at NoToll and had the misfortune of the Copy Cat rinse & repeat. While YHC felt the workout would never end, DK wondered aloud why it felt so short?

    Bobber continues to excel and is clearly ready for his VQ. It should be any week now.

    Peace

  • Pretending to be a Sherpa

    It had been a long time since YHC Q’d a workout at 45MoM.  Nothing really changed except for the shiny new traffic circles (more on that later).  10 strong posted for some traditional F3 fun vs. the recent influx of CrossFit WODs.

    COP:  SSH, Scap. Merkins, DX, Mtn Climbers…

    Mosey to corner and partner up for carry time.  Run down Westmorland, 10 burpees, partner carry down Cary, 10 burpees, backwards run down Commonwealth, partner carry down Grove, and finish with 10 burpees.  Repeato with 10x Super Man Merkins (assume Super Man position at the bottom of each merkin) instead of the burpees.

    Mosey to basketball court for Triple Check= run, good form squats and wall runners (merkin near base of wall then push yourself to balls to the wall position, come back down and repeat)

    Back to the flag for some ab fun.

    COT: Ricky Bobby and Marv spotted a rainbow framing the sunrise, and we simply stopped a minute to take that in.  Nuff said

    NMM:  YHC used a couple of CrossFit WODs over the past couple of days to try something a bit different, but today was back to basics.  The partner carry is always a blast, and it needs to be noted that TYA carried YHC up and down the road more than once without a break.  YHC also thought that the backwards run down Commonwealth would be a nice respite.  It turns out that it’s a lot farther than it looks.  Speaking of looks, Wedding Singer should have been looking out for the new traffic circles during the backwards portion of the circuit.

    Announcements:

    • 2nd F Event Friday 1730 at The Answer- Pre Convergence chance to hang with Gnarly Goat
    • CONVERGENCE 0700 Saturday, DogPile with GROW school led by Gnarly Goat at ET’s immediately following the workout
    • 9/17 F3 team at Reese Strong 5k: http://www.reesestrong.org/reesestrong-5k/
    • 9/24 F3 Team at Spartan, see Toga or just signup
    • See Flashdance if interested in Festy run, early Oct.

  • Pre-Blast Monday Evening RiverRun – 8/8/16

    We are going to meet at Bettie Woodson Weaver Elementary School, 3600 James River Rd, Midlothian, VA 23113 on Monday 8/8/16 at 7:30 pm for a group/individual run of choice.  A few southside PAX that have been unable to make the Wednesday Hill run very often and have expressed interest in an alternative option and with 1 month before BRR, there’s no time to waste.

    We will start the run at 7:30 pm with varying options for distances and finish times.  I have mapped out a 6 and 9+ mile route below but feel free to map out your own option from the address above or adjust one of the ones below to meet  your need.  The options below maximize the hills in the area for what should be good BRR training.

    http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1196627218  9+ mile option

    http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1196625070   6 mile option

    See you out there.  Rosie

  • A whole lotta swings & lunges at the Circus…

    8 strong, including 2 CM newbies, posted to Circus Maximus in the gloom to swing some bells and get the blood flowing on this glorious morning, and it went a little something like this…

    COP:

    • SSH x20 IC
    • DQ x12 IC
    • Helicopter x10 IC
    • Halo x10 IC clockwise and x10 IC counter-clockwise
    • Figure 8s x20 OYO

    Partner up at top of the parking lot.  Partner 1 takes both KBs and lunges about 15-20 yards to light-post and back while Partner 2 does plank-o-rama, then Flapjack.  Repeato x2.

    Farmer carry mosey around the CM loop and back to the sidewalk in front of the school for a 5-exercise circuit.  Two rounds – x20 reps in round 1 and x10 reps in round 2.  Exercises:

    • Goblet squats
    • Snatches – each arm
    • Reverse Lunges – each leg
    • Double-arm swings
    • Squat & Press

    Swing & Push — perform 20 double-arm swings then 10 merkins and repeat counting down the number of merkins to 1.  Audible called to reduce swings from 20 to 10 after completing 5 merkins.  That is a lot of swings.  Plank-o-rama until the six finishes.

    Mary – pass the KBs around a close circle while trying to keep feet off the ground (American Hammer style) and Bridge x10 OYO.

    COT – Number-rama, name-arama and YHC took us out.

    Moleskin:

    Great work today fellas.  Mumbechatter was low, so I’m hoping that means the work was hard.  Those lunges and swings are going to haunt me all day, no doubt.

    It was great to break out the KB and get back out to CM.  It is always a great change of pace from the other AOs in town.  I highly recommend it for anyone who hasn’t yet tried it.  Bring a dumbbell to try it out or give a shout to some of the regulars and we will try to have an extra KB out there for you.

    Always a pleasure to step out front and lead such a fine group.  Thanks.

    Announcements:

    • 2nd F happy hour tomorrow, 1730 at The Answer
    • Convergence at 0700 Saturday at Dogpile with GROW school and coffeeteria afterwards at ET – no workout at 0600, but I’m sure Swirly will be there to secure the perimeter.
    • Reese Strong 5k in Da Ville 9/17 – great cause, so lets have a strong F3 showing.  See Lab Rat or Phonics for information
    • See Toga about Spartan Race 9/24

    Have a great Thursday!

  • Weather Does Matter

    3 men gathered for a Wednesday evening hill run.

    The Thang: Hillcrest loop x6.

    NMM:

    The weather was amazing. The past few weeks have been a scorcher. Mid 90’s and 75%+ humidity. It has seemed more like swimming by the time we finished versus running. Today was a completely different story, it was 81 and breezy, with about 50% humidity. This made for a much easier and quicker run than the past several. Additionally, rather than being totally exhausted after the run, we were feeling good with extra energy to give if needed.

    Honeydo slayed the hills today, he did 6 laps plus a run up Charmian on laps 1 and 4. He was moving along at a great clip. Aisle 5 continues to get stronger every week. He came up the hill for the final time with a ton of energy and a great pace going. Inspirational to see the type of improvement in his running over the past six months.

    TYA OUT

  • The Murph* 1.0

    9 faithful and 1 FNG posted for our inaugural attempt at The Murph* (explanation and our revised version to follow).  Here’s how it went down:

    Start promptly at 0530 to run the VITA trail and head to pull-up bars.  Following a brief/ineffective tutorial on kipping pull-ups, begin 100 pull-ups, 200 merkins and 300 squats.  Note: the pull-ups were on a team number, and the merkins and squats were individual goals.

    At 0602 we pulled the plug and ran the VITA again.  The PAX, minus the Q, engaged in some plank work and ended on time.  Viral took us out.

    NMM:  For those who don’t know, “The Murph” is a Crossfit WOD named after Navy Lt Michael Murphy who died in Afghanistan in 2005.  If you have seen the movie or read Lone Survivor, you know about his sacrifice.  Needless to say, we didn’t wear body armor, and we didn’t attempt the full 100 pull-ups per person.  This was more of an intro to a Crossfit classic, and I think we learned some things:

    • We’re going to need to learn to do kipping pull-ups to ever get to 100 per person.
    • Kipping pull-ups will rip even well established calluses right off your hands.
    • The Murph needs to be done in a 1 hr workout vs a 45 min slot.
    • We were close enough in this attempt that I am 100% that we can all do this!
    • Circle K can crank out some pull-ups!  Who knew?

    YHC has no idea how everyone else did, but Circle K completed our version, and YHC was 40 squats from being done.  Everyone else can post their results or not, but I know everyone put a very good dent in it.  Strong work by all!

    Special welcome to FNG – Patrick Murtaugh, now known as Bartles and Jaymes.  Zima is EH’ing after only one workout!

    Stay Classy,

    Toga

    Announcements:

    • 2nd F Event Friday 1730 at The Answer- Pre Convergence chance to hang with Gnarly Goat
    • CONVERGENCE 0700 Saturday, DogPile with GROW school led by Gnarly Goat at ET’s immediately following the workout
    • BRR is oh so soon
    • 9/17 F3 team at Reese Strong 5k: http://www.reesestrong.org/reesestrong-5k/
    • 9/24 F3 Team at Spartan, see Toga or just signup
    • See Flashdance if interested in Festy run, early Oct.

  • Parking Lot Party

    20 F3 Faithful and 3 FNG (23 is a new DaVille record) showed up in the foggy gloom for a beatdown that went something like this:

    Mosey to area behind parking lot for COP.

    Invisible Jump Ropex50 IC, LBCx45 IC, Invisible Jump Ropex40 IC, Flutter Kickx35 IC, SSHx30 IC, Freddie Mercuryx25 IC

    Mosey back to far side of parking lot.  Q selects PAX member to lead the PAX to any parking spot and Q randomly uses numbers and words of parking space to assign exercise.  Exercises performed:

    Grabber 64 WWII situps, Emoji 15 Burpees, BB 75 squats, Abacus run to van 40 yards away ten times, Sticky 20 merkins, something else?

    Mosey to side of parking lot for descending curb crawls.  Bear crawls from island to main sidewalk and perform 8 incline merkins, bear crawl back to island and perform 7 incline merkins.  Repeato until down to 1 incline merkin.

    Mosey to front of parking lot.  Partner up.  One PAX runs across parking lot while partner performs exercise.  Exercises performed: merkins, alabama prom dates, mountain climbers.  Repeato x 3. Audibled to x2 based on time.

    COT-Abacus took us out with prayer.  Well said brother.

    Announcements

    Convergence this Saturday, 7am Dogpile, Grow School to follow at ETs

    2nd F this Friday at The Answer

    Reesestrong Race in September.  See Phonics (F3 brother who is organizing race) or LabRat.

    YHC had two objectives with todays workout.  1:Not to leave the parking lot 2:Bring the pain as YHC ate all the wrong foods and drink all the wrong drink while at the river for a long weekend. Mission Accomplished.  The PAX only left the parking lot for the initial COP, as YHC had plenty of abs planned and YHC wanted to save the skin on the backside of the PAX members.  Upon returning to the parking lot, randomly using the numbers and letters of the parking lot spaces proved to illicit much mumblechatter from the PAX and YHC knew the plan was working.  Surprisingly, during the 75 squats, not a word was said by the PAX.  I guess everyone was concentrating on proper form or nobody could believe YHC really said 75 squats after BB brought us all the way across the parking lot for the third time.  The PAX really crushed the descending curb crawls.  Way to work men.  The PAX also finished strong with the partner exercises and YHC witnessed much encouragement form the entire PAX.  F# is all about each member of the PAX pushing other members (IRON SHARPENS IRON) to accomplish an objective that you would not accomplish by yourself.  This was clearly evident as we concluded this morning’s beatdown.  YHC definitely needed all the encouragement I could get.

    Welcome to Bobba-Bouy (talk to Sticky about the name), Clapper and Chippy.  Looking forward to future beatdowns with each of you.

    Privilege to step out front and lead a great group of men.

    Circle K

  • We are not alone!

    Well maybe Chum Bucket is alone, but there were ten at NoToll who were ready to get after it.  Here’s how it went down:

    Mosey to main lot of COP and disclaimer:  Mtn Climbers, Don Quixote, Merkins, Hillbillies

    Mosey to first field for something like a Crossfit WOD called Kelly:  Run a lap, 30x box/bleacher jumps, 30x muscle ups, ab fun and repeato x5.

    Mosey back to flag for 5 minutes of Mary

    NMM:  First, YHC was a bit concerned after reading the backblasts that it would be lonely at NoToll and going through the Kelly (you actually do wall ball shots instead of the muscle ups, but who has 10, 20lb medicine balls?) by yourself did not sound like fun.  This concern led to the need to find just the right My Morning Jacket track while driving by UR.  YHC almost took out a Spider Run participant, but maybe he needed to get to NoToll to work on those soccer arms?

    YHC didn’t let the PAX know how many rounds there might be, but I honestly didn’t hear any complaints till the end when Rosie questioned my creativity.  The PAX got after it, and there were strong performances all around.  Rosie kept up a strong lead with he and Honey Do finishing the jumps and MUs together.  Mr Roper (terrific F3 name) and FlashDance were grinding out the reps.  Oyster was egged into trying to beat Rosie back to the flag (it was close), and Hyena cruised in with a smile on his face.  Well done all!

    Announcements:

    • 2nd F Event Friday 1730 at The Answer- Pre Convergence chance to hang with Gnarly Goat
    • CONVERGENCE 0700 Saturday, DogPile with GROW school led by Gnarly Goat at ET’s immediately following the workout
    • BRR is oh so soon
    • 9/17 F3 team at Reese Strong 5k: http://www.reesestrong.org/reesestrong-5k/
    • 9/24 F3 Team at Spartan, see Toga or just signup
    • See Flashdance if interested in Festy run, early Oct.

    Stay Classy,

    Toga

    PS:  You may want to check this out.., it could come in handy very soon:

  • Grandmother Run

    9 fleet footed warriors posted for a Tuesday Spider run. Weather was 70 and sunny.

    The Thang:

    Down the hill to the path that follows CCV. Follow the path until the end and head across the Huguenot bridge. Take Riverside drive west until it hits Cherokee. Turn back around and head back to the shovel flag following the same route.

    NMM:

    This was the second time YHC did this route. The first time I got terribly lost coming back. Today, I carefully watched the first several turns to make sure I knew the route, fortunately, I got it right this time. Pucker was the only one that had a little difficulty with the assigned route. When he hit Cherokee, he thought we were supposed to run down Cherokee and back along Huguenot road. Fortunately, Seymour rescued Pucker and they came back following the right route. Upon reflection of Pucker’s misinterpretation of the route, I got more confused. He must have been really baffled when he saw the faster PAX doubling back after hitting the top of the hill at Cherokee?

    All the PAX had a interesting interaction with one of the bikers out for an early morning ride. The biker felt compelled to tell each and every one of us that a black outfit in the AM was not appropriate. From what I heard, we all let him know that we appreciated the advice and feedback and moved on to our days.

    Great to see Sippy back out at the run this morning. He tweaked this knee two fridays ago on RAMM. He was nursing it a little today, but looked strong as usual. YHC and several other PAX learned that Sippy nursing an injury is better than us at our full strength.

    Welcome to Zima. He posted today for the first time to F3 on advice from his brother in Raleigh. I’m not sure he knew today was a run, but he easily went along with the group. Zima is a cofounder of Hardywood brewery, so Marv quickly chimed in with three suggested names: Schlitz, Zima, and Bartles and James. He asked for his advice/preference and Zima was born. After the workout, I asked Zima for his email address/etc. He gave me one of his business cards. As a result, I learned a new word. Lima is a certified Cicerone. I honestly had no idea there was such a thing as a Cicerone, never mind that one could be certified in it. The good news is that F3 RVA now has a certified Cicerone in its ranks. Lab Rat, you will have to bring some of your home brew for the Cicerone to sample.

    Announcements

    Convergence on Saturday at 7am at Dogpile, Coffeetaria at Ellwoods post workout.